# 1751 in Great Britain

Events from the year 1751 in Great Britain.

## Incumbents

* Monarch – George II
* Prime Minister – Henry Pelham (Whig)

## Events

* 25 March – legally New Year's Day for the last time in England and Wales.
* 31 March – Frederick, Prince of Wales dies at Leicester House, London from a lung injury and is succeeded by his son the future George III of the United Kingdom as heir apparent to the throne; three weeks later George is made Prince of Wales. George's mother, Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, becomes Dowager Princess of Wales.
* April – the Gin Act requires government inspection of distilleries and restricts sale to licensed premises.
* 27 May – adoption of the Gregorian calendar: royal assent is given to An Act for Regulating the Commencement of the Year; and for Correcting the Calendar now in Use (the "Calendar Act") passed by Parliament, introducing the Gregorian Calendar, correcting the eleven-day difference between Old Style and New Style dates and making 1 January legally New Year's Day from 1752 in the British Empire. It is largely promoted by George Parker, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield.
* 4 June – Dr John Wall and partners establish a porcelain factory in Worcester, "The Worcester Tonquin Manufactory", the origin of Royal Worcester.
* 31 August – Robert Clive takes the Indian town of Arcot from the French.
* 20 October – Charles, Duke of Bolton, marries celebrated actress Lavinia Fenton, already the mother of his three children.
* 3 December – Battle of Arnee: Robert Clive defeats a Franco-Indian force.

### Undated

* A British settlement is founded in Georgetown in North America.
* Newcastle Infirmary founded in Newcastle upon Tyne.
* A new Lizard Lighthouse is built in Cornwall.
* William Hogarth engraves the prints Gin Lane, Beer Street and The Four Stages of Cruelty.

## Publications

* 15 February – Thomas Gray's anonymous Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard.
* Henry Fielding's novel Amelia.
* Eliza Haywood's anonymous novel The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless.
* David Hume's book An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals.
* Tobias Smollett's anonymous picaresque novel The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle.

## Births

* 31 January – Priscilla Wakefield (née Bell), Quaker writer and philanthropist (died 1832)
* 2 May – John André, soldier (died 1780)
* 4 June – John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon, Lord Chancellor (died 1838)
* 11 July – Caroline Matilda of Great Britain, posthumously-born daughter of Frederick, Prince of Wales and later queen consort of Denmark (died 1775)
* 30 October – Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Irish-born dramatist and politician (died 1816)
* 14 November – Capel Lofft, lawyer, writer and astronomer (died 1824 in France)
* date unknown
** Helen Craik, Scottish novelist and poet (died 1825) (probable year)
** Thomas Sheraton, furniture designer (died 1806)

## Deaths

* 20 January – John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol, politician (born 1665)
* 29 March – Thomas Coram, sea captain and philanthropist (born c.1668)
* 31 March
** Frederick, Prince of Wales (born 1707)
** Robert Walpole, 2nd Earl of Orford (born 1701)
* 9 June – John Machin, mathematician and astronomer (b. c.1686)
* 22 August – Andrew Gordon, Scottish-born Benedictine monk, physicist and inventor (born 1712)
* 2 October – Thomas Mathews, Welsh admiral (born 1676)
* 26 October – Philip Doddridge, nonconformist religious leader (born 1702)
* 12 December – Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, statesman and philosopher (born 1678)
* 17 December – Sir William Gooch, 1st Baronet, Governor of Virginia (born 1681)
* 19 December – Louise of Great Britain, English-born queen of Frederick V of Denmark (born 1724)